Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson; qualifies as a classic through its ability so survive so many years. Not as literary as some but there's a muppets version, so that's also how you know it's an important book.

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley; an all time great, that invents a genre.

In Cold Blood, Truman Capote; True crime is rarely good, but maybe because it's so hard to live up to the Archetype that is In Cold Blood.

The Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling/The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman; both enjoyable, well told tales and fun to read within months of each other.

Magician, Raymond E. Feist; it's imperfect, but holds a place in my heart and I read it once a year.

American Gods, Neil Gaiman; It really is a damn good book with lots of interesting things to say about how we shape stories and are shaped by stories.

The entire Discworld canon, Terry Pratchett; literature says something about the human condition and the fantasy satire series says more than any other written works.

Solomani, that is rad! I love the idea of a vehicle with personality. A pregenerated vehicle is certainly a great way to go.

The system I plan probably owes a bit more to the Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts vehicle editor, Wacky Racers and Mad Max. My goal for anything is always to make it as interactive as possible and give my players ownership of the things that are in the world. Building a vehicle from the ground up before they head off to Scrapwall will be a mini-quest in and of itself.

Last week I started a game of "Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures", which creates games that are supposed to bear closer resemblance to Young Adult fiction, but it had a very OSR style, simplified classes and easy rules. The attitude of "Rulings Over Rules".

Rolling on tables to randomly generate characters and build flesh on those backstory skeletons was a lot of fun.

The one problem I had was there was five saves: Saves Vs. Poison, Save Vs. Magic, Save Vs. Magic Item, Save Vs. Breath Weapon, Save Vs. A Fifth Thing?

Whatever, the appendix listed a simple conversion to Fortitude, Reflex and Will, and that was that.

The very first combat the players got into, was against a pair of Red Caps. The first thing one of my players wanted to do was use his lasso to lasso a redcap.

There are no rules for lassoing things.

So I asked him to make an attack roll vs the Redcap's AC. He succeeded, and I gave the Redcap a -2 to its AC until released.

Here's the thing though, now I had to write down that rule, because that's how lassoing works now in my game.

I could understand the appeal somewhat, but my first thought was: Why couldn't this be adapted to Pathfinder? I'm sure I could put together some tables that would allow a group to put together some randomized Pathfinder characters and immediately jump into a randomly generated adventure.

I've talked about this subject at length before, first a few rules to note:

Take 10: Encourage your players to "Take 10" whenever possible, and as a GM have a copy of their Perception when they "Take 10" (or Passive Perception). Incorporate any hidden things directly into the description of the room when the player's Passive Perception exceeds the DC of the hidden thing.

Example wrote:

[i]This lavish royal bedroom is round, 20 feet in diameter, a circular pit in the middle of the room is lined with a soft cushion material, and pillows haphazardly strewn about it. Along the walls are chests of drawers, some of them hang open with clothes hanging out. There is an exit to the north and to the east.
Modred (The Druid): You notice a bulge underneath the pillow pit.
Darktread (The Rogue): You notice that there isn't an equal amount of drawers on both chests, even though the size of the chests and drawers are similar.

Time:

Searching a 5 ft. square is a move action. So if a player wants to roll Perception, just ask them where are they searching? The chests of drawers, the cushion pit, or the exit doors?

Taking 20: Sometimes the PCs really want to toss a room and find everything. NO PROBLEM. Each five foot square is one minute. Count the number of squares in the room. That's how many minutes it takes to toss the whole room.

Finally:
Use the rules that exist to make your game more than a flurry of perception rolls. When PCs enter a room without monsters, go around the table and ask them what in the room draws their interest.

Thanks to everyone for contributing to this thread. Right now I'm using it as a GM notepad, but once I get through my Kingmaker expansions I'll be dropping some rules modules in here like vehicle building rules, mythic burnout for NPCs, and stuff like that.

Neil, those are some incredibly rad ideas adding more Ultron to Unity would be icing on the GLaDOS cake.

Where Kingmaker is my most epic campaign I've ever run, Iron Gods promises to be my most Gonzo.

Titania is kind of a joke villain, and more of a She-Hulk staple. Her interaction with Thor in the issue was meant to be a comedy moment, and I think it hit the right notes. I'd like to see her come back as a dangerous foe next time.

Additionally I let Giants attack with their slam attacks in addition to their weapon attacks, and call them STOMP attacks. This means full attacks from Giants can be damned dangerous, so finding a way to stop giants from full-attacking is probably a good idea.

Oh, and there is a chance that the players will want to split up. If they choose to do that then you might want to make a battle against a single Frost Drake or maybe only a pair depending on the APL of the party encountering the Frost Drake.

Try to reward clever use of spells and the like with a bonus to a skill or ability check.

You don't want to punish them for failure too often though, since it's basically a dice roll we're talking about. Anything that risks damage should either have a significantly lower DC or significantly reduced time compared to the other choice.

There's a 20% chance of random encounter, I'd put together an ecounter table that goes:

Add a Frost Drake with the Large Template and a Frost Drake with the Young Template, this would be roughly a CR 10 encounter (an epic encounter!)

Now you can put together a skill challenge, treat it similar to a Chase, put down 9 cards in a 3x3 grid face down. On each card should be two different kinds of Skill or Ability Checks. Succeeding at 1 check takes approximately 1d4 hours (-1 per 5 points the DC is exceeded). Allowing a character to move from one card to the next.
If a character succeeds at both checks they may reveal two adjacent cards.

They are nocturnal creatures - they do most of their hunting at night to make the most of their Cloaked ability. While Kasatha has a red sky, at night their sky is just as black and star-lit as Golarion and Earth, except with three moons. Their underbellies are cloaked to night conditions, not day conditions. I am guessing the reference to azure colour is from moonlight, not the day sky.

The Numerians shouldn't have a name for Petromin as the only Petromin would have been on the fake Kasathan habitat on the Divinity. Unless they escaped?

Having said that, the flavour text makes it sound like a Petromin can adapt their coloration for any environment.

It's been 9,000 years. Coloring that blends with Golarion habitats would be a useful genetic trait to pass on. Evolution!

Barbarian Creature (CR +2 or +3)
A barbarian creature can fly into a rage, granting it numerous bonuses in combat. It also gains additional hit points and a few valuable defensive abilities. A barbarian creature's CR increases by 3 if the creature has 10 or more HD. A barbarian creature must be chaotic.

Quick Rules: +2 on all rolls based on Str; can rage† for a number of rounds per day equal to 4 + its HD + its Con modifier (this functions as greater rage† if the creature has 10 or more HD); gains DR 1/— and uncanny dodge† (DR 3/— and improved uncanny dodge† if the creature has 10 or more HD).

Rebuild Rules:Defensive Abilities uncanny dodge† (improved uncanny dodge† if the creature has 10 or more HD; DR 1/— (3/— if the creature has 10 or more HD); Special Attacks rage† (can be used a number of rounds per day equal to 4 + its HD + its Con modifier, functions as the greater rage† class feature if the creature has 10 or more HD); Ability Scores +4 Strength.

The players would finish the battle and see Golarion from space. They'd have time if they want to upload Casandalee to become a more benevolent goddess of robits while they're up there and could then use escape pods to fall back to Golarion.

Or don't. One of the PCs is a demi-god. The others are mythic (ish). What a great opportunity to say, "that world can keep on turning because of us. Where do we go, from here?" and turn towards the wider solar system. That's the last scene of a sci-fi adventure movie, even more than the heroes watching from Earth as their demigod NPC achieves apotheosis in a flash of light high above them. This is even more true if party members are aliens, themselves. "Let's go home... rockets fire away from Golarion"

One of the problems with APs is the lack of a cinematic ending: they tend to stop at a final battle, then the PCs get experience and sell their loot. (Chapter 6 is hard to write for every group, of course, because things have usually diverged from the plan so much, by then. Not every group or DM wants to fly into space at the end.)

I think that the characters and Unity should interact more, but not for the first four chapters. They have to figure out who and what Unity is on their own before Unity starts messing with them.

I love the Mad Max-style driving idea. Would that mess with the hexploration?

That's a great ending.

As to the vehicles messing with book 4. Nah, either the size of The Scar of the Spider increases to compensate, or I'll give the PCs a reason to stash their bikes.

So I'm thinking about having some mythic paths that let players pick some nifty stuff without having to dedicate character resources to them. Something that I can overlay on the characters like Mythic Tiers.
Based on the traits the PCs get.

Thanks to everyone who has critiqued the rod of gravity, I was really proud of the item. I had a bit of a crisis when it came to pricing, because it's an item that if overused could become disruptive so I brought its uses down to once per day. Essentially you when you wanted to change how an entire battlefield works that's the time to activate it.

Playing with gravity though feels like high power magic, and something suited to the last book of an AP. So I wanted to price it as such. I might have overestimated the power of the item though and probably could have brought it down to be within reach at about level 10.

Ok, so I'm a by confused on exactly what happens to Casandalee if she is launched into orbit and made into a full-fledged demigod. The shuttle she is in and the Divinity Drive both explode at the moment of apotheosis. The thing is, Casandalee is just a demigod, so she doesn't become omnipotent or omniscient. She doesn't ascended to a higher plan of existence or anything. Casandalee is just a divine AI, and doesn't actually have a physical form. However, since she is now a deity, I could accept that she attains a physical form upon apotheosis. But then what? I'd like to think she doesn't just float around in space, endlessly orbiting Golarion. Any insights or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

On a similar note, how would Casandalee's stats be affected by her reaching true demigodhood?

I like the idea of Casandalee becoming a satellite deity watching over Golarion in geosynchronous orbit with Numeria. Then if you run War of the Worlds or some other future AP with space based threats she can send warning visions to her followers in the form of holograms beamed down to Golarion.

So Kikonu returned. Or rather the psychic imprint he left in the mind of Zaiobe managed to escape her subconscious as a unique ectoplasmic outsider (long story). As the party was arguing about what to do with essentially a clone of Kikonu, he tempted Avery with stories of fabulous treasure hidden in Giant tombs. Avery took the deal, and Kikonu whisked her away to a Stone Giant tomb. Written across the door in Giant: "Disturb not the dead, lest you join them." She got attacked by some human skeletons buried in the tomb. She killed the skeletons handily. The next door read: "Disturb not the stone lest he suffer the stone curse."
Finding a trap she tied a rope to the door and tried pulling it open at a distance. It didn't help. Opening the trap caused a severed medusa head to drop from the ceiling. Avery turned to stone immediately thanks to a failed Fort save. Her allies eventually tracked her and returned her statue body to the caravan.

Back when 2 ed psionics offered early access to dimensional door, we used to try to send enemies a few hundred feat up in the air, drop one or more boulders at enemies, ect. this is a small sample of what your players may come up with, just as advanced warning.

Since the portal gun requires a solid surface, those shenanigans aren't quite as easy to pull off.

But then again: Outside the dungeon open a portal under a boulder. Inside the dungeon shoot a portal at the roof above an enemy. Hilarity ensues.

I'm really hoping we see some giants who use smarter tactics when appropriate. My players use smart tactics to eliminate them, some giants are intelligent, and even the stupid ones will follow orders from, say, a Rune Giant.

For one example, giants get immense tactical benefit using reach weapons, like spears and polearms. A Hill Giant with a reach weapon gets to full attack from 20' away where the foe can't full attack back, plus it's almost guaranteed to get an AoO, plus they tend to be hard-hitting two handed weapons that take maximum advantage of giant strength. Your basic hill giant with a longspear is at least 30% more combat effective than is one with a greatclub. I know this by sometimes so equipping them when I ran RotRL. The difference is large enough that it would be reasonable to sometimes up the Tier from Low to High simply by equipping the giant with a polearm. Yet I can't recall a single instance , in any published Paizo module, of a giant wielding a reach weapon. Why is that?

Because reach weapons confuse people, reach weapons on creatures with reach make people cry.